#that remy is depicted as someone who does no wrong even though he refers to himself as a “””scoundrel

[thainperegrinn]

i have so much hate in my heart for people who call the x-men 97 version of rogue a bop

[soupthatistohot]

Why do I write primarily mlm fanfic?

This was something I asked myself the other day. I am a girl, I think I'm queer (but I am attracted to men, whatever I am), so why do I fixate on mlm relationships? Why do I never feel compelled to write wlw or even just some good 'ol straight stuff? I brought this up to a few friends of mine who also watch anime. One of them said that it’s because lots of popular media only really focuses on developing their male characters well, and I think this to be a very suitable explanation (as well as the fact that I’m queer and thus gravitate towards queer stories).

Take Sk8 the Infinity for example. I could count the number of female characters in this anime on one hand, and one of them is a robot. The others are supporting roles who only serve to support the male main characters. I love Sk8 very much, and with the possibility of a 2nd season I’d love to see a prominent, well-developed female character (but if they make her Reki’s love interest I will literally stab someone). But as the anime stands right now, there are no female characters that aren't just basically plot devices.

Another show I love dearly, Yuri!!! on Ice, is much the same. While there can be more of an argument made here because 1) competitive figure skating is split up between men and women, and 2) I believe that the story Yuuri and Victor is absolutely meant to be a romance, so having the two men as the focus is somewhat necessary, there's an overwhelming lack of fleshed-out women in the story. All the female characters are supporting members that only exist for the benefit of male characters. Yuuko and Minako support Yuuri, Lilia exists so Yuri P. can improve, Mila is just... kind of there, and Sara's whole character is centered around her brother being overprotective of her.

Okay, so let's look at something a little less... fruity. Horimiya. I've only watched the anime, so if there's stuff I miss from not having read the manga (yet), please forgive me. I still think this is a valid perspective, though, because if there's female development that the creators decided was so unimportant that it could be cut, that still supports my point here. In my opinion, Miyamura is a lot more developed than Hori. He has his tragic backstory of being a loner, and having his secret piercings and tattoos and all that. A lot of the story ends up focusing on his side of things... despite the fact that Hori is the protagonist. The story follows her perspective for the most part, we learn things about Miyamura as she does, yet I feel like she's a bit dull. She has a uncommon home life and has to take care of her younger brother, that's her big bad secret? I get that it's kind of unexpected since she's the pretty, perfect, popular girl, but I still feel like it's a tad anticlimactic. It's hardly ever addressed beyond the first few episodes, too, and it just kind of exists as a fact within the story. Even beyond our main couple, it seems like the other female characters development and stories are all focused on the boy they're interested in (except for Sawada, but she's there for like a couple of episodes and then doesn't really show up all that much again... and her crush on Hori is handled really weird, I didn't exactly love it). Remi's entire character is pretty much centered around her boyfriend, and Sakura and Yuki are basically competing for Toru. Meanwhile, the guys have story beats themed around the girls they're interested in, but I feel like it's not as obsessive or dramatic as how the girls are depicted.

So, we're given these female characters, who are really watered-down and honestly kind of boring, and we're not super compelled to write about them. When we are given flat female characters, there's nothing to work with. It's more fun to use the characters who have had development and play around with the "what ifs" and our own personal headcannons. The characters who get this special treatment are primarily male. And while I commend a lot of shows for developing their male characters in such a way that doesn't exactly fit with society's idea of masculinity (ex: Reki's insecurities and depression, Yuuri's anxiety and femininity, Miyamura's isolation and depression), in the end these characters are still boys, men, males.

I also think mlm is so prominent because of both straight girls and queer people. For straight girls, it can often be fetishization (forgive my generalizing, I'm sure not all straight girls are like that, but an overwhelming amount definitely are). I think one of the best examples I can give for this is Phan. This is a bit different since it's not anime, but instead real people, but if anything that really drives home the point even more. The way Dan and Phil were (and probably still are) treated in the fandom internet space is disturbing, to say the least. Their audience, while much of it was queer, was also made up of an overwhelming amount of heterosexual girls who not only shipped them intensely, but also often sexualized them. And look, there's nothing inherently wrong with being a straight girl and writing smut, but it gets to a point where it can be kind of weird if its excessive. Like, if that's all the relationship is really about, and if the people you're writing about are real human beings, that's definitely overstepping. I will admit that I had a Wattpad and that I wrote Phanfic way back when, and this is something I'm not exactly proud of. Granted, I did not write anything explicit, it was still super weird, whether or not I was queer. And I'm not saying all the problematic aspects of the Phandom were because of straight girls, because what I contributed was arguably problematic, and I did not identify as straight at the time. At the same time, though, there were straight girls who wrote exclusively smut (or "lemons" as they might've been referred to at the time). There were those who analyzed every post, every bit of information they could find about these men on the internet. They obsessed over the fact that they occasionally shared clothes (which is fairly common for roomates of similar sizes to do), and gathered evidence to support the theory that they shared a bed. It was bad. It was invasive, and it got to the point where it wasn't about the people, it was about the fetishized fantasy these girls made up in their heads about these real, actual men.

Dan and Phil's online presence kind of disappeared for a few years... and I don't blame them.

Getting back on track, mlm is prominent for queer people because it's the LGBT representation they so desperately want to see actualized in media. If a show doesn't make their favorite queer ship canon (and they often don't), they'll do it themselves! That's what fanfic is for! I also know that queer people project onto these characters a lot, and that writing about them is almost like a form of therapy. They see these characters as queer, and they see themselves in these characters, so they write about these characters experiencing similar emotions to them. The thing is, the most compelling characters are male, so those are the characters they end up focusing on, even if the person in question is strictly sapphic. My best example is how I project onto Reki. Personally, I end up thinking of him as (and thus end up writing him as) having some internalized homophobia around being bisexual. That's literally what I am currently going through. I can't project this onto any of the female characters in Sk8, because I couldn't see them going through this experience because they're not developed enough to.

Despite all of this, I still enjoy all of the shows I mention a lot. I think it's just an interesting topic that I was thinking about. I'm not trying to bash anything that I used as an example, these were just my personal observations based off of what I know about these shows and their fandoms. I do, though, believe shipping real people isn't super cool, and I stand by that as someone who used to do it. I'm not going to stop you... I just think it's intrusive and inappropriate to pretend like you know enough about influencers to dictate who they should be involved with romantically. Their love life is, frankly, none of your damn business.

So, long story short, we should make anime (and popular media in general) less misogynistic.

(Also, please leave Dan and Phil alone, they deserve privacy)

[ironwoman359]

Ok, I’m gonna say something. I don’t even know if it's entirely necessary to say or not, but it’s kinda been bothering me lately, so I’m gonna say it anyway, if only to scratch my own personal itch about the subject. (and btw, this isn’t in response to any particular post or anything, I’ve been sitting on this draft for about two days now, trying to word what I think about it just right, so please don’t take my intentions to be calling out any individuals or anything like that. In fact, I wouldn’t even say this is a call out, it’s more like me offering my opinion, but I digress.)

So...Deceit.

Deceit has been in all of two videos. Canonically, we know very little about him. We know that he’s “an inner coach who acts with the one goal of self preservation,” we know that he (apparently) always has to be engaging in some sort of deception or lie (my thoughts about how that works are at the end of this post if you’re curious), we know that he’s a slimey boi who to the best of our knowledge doesn’t actually excrete slime (also we know that his scales are actual scales, not makeup, due to Logan referring to them as such), and we know he’s a total drama queen (did you see his outfit?) who likes to make musical theatre puns. Honestly, not a lot to go on for the sake of fan depictions. 

So where am I going with this? 

Let. People. Write. Deceit. How. They. Want. To. 

Some people write Deceit as a horrible, horrible person. They write him as an abusive bastard and has done things to Virgil and the others that make my skin crawl. There is nothing redeemable about those characterizations....and that is okay. It’s okay to write Deceit as a completely unredeemable villain. Those characters are important to have, for a variety of reasons, and until now there was no easy way to have that type of character in canonverse without making up an oc, which not everyone wants to do. We have a villain now, a real actual villain, not an “I’m not always the bad guy” morally gray character like Anxiety. Let people explore what they want to explore with real, canon characters without calling them out on “demonizing Deceit” or writing ooc. It’s fanfiction. It’s okay if it’s ooc. Because you know what else is ooc?

Fluffy, cutesy, doesn’t mean any harm, really, soft boi Deceit. 

Also not canon. Also an okay character to write. Some people want to write Deceit as misunderstood, or as someone who’s trying his best but gets it wrong a lot, and is slowly coming around. That is also perfectly okay to write and explore. There’s a reason we have the ‘sympathetic deceit’ tag. Deceit fluff is a thing, and I’m not gonna lie, it’s really cute. Some people just wanna draw a cute snake boi. 

I dunno, I just feel like people are feeling they need to do either or...that they must either love or hate Deceit, that he must either be utterly despicable or completely redeemable. None of that is true. 

I have written both a villainous Deceit and a fluffy Deceit. I have read fics where he is an awful person, fics where he’s a begrudging or blossoming member of the famILY, and I have read fics where he’s somewhere in-between (particularly human AUs, there’s so many directions you could take him). I have enjoyed all of them. I appreciate the varied takes on the character. Because it’s fanfiction. It’s okay to write characters ooc in fanfiction if it suits your story. 

Heck, I’m writing a story where (minor spoilers for Our Own Villain chapters 3 and 4...) Roman literally locks Virgil in a dungeon in his room and sends out his entire army to hunt down Logan and Patton, but no one has said that I’m bad for writing Roman that way, in fact, I’ve gotten nothing but positive response to a villain!Roman. And the Pride!Roman has been met with resounding applause in this fandom (as it should, cause that idea is epic and the designs of him are so cool and creative). So why is writing Deceit ooc different? 

Because both of those versions, the horrific abuser and adorable blep....they’re both fanon. Deceit’s actions in the canon are not redeemable...but it’s possible for his purpose to be. There are times when lying is the correct choice in a scenario, the episode even went over that, but it still does not excuse his behavior in the episode. Because while trying to convince Thomas to do things his way, he was manipulative. He played off of the others’ hopes and fears to get what he wanted, and he dressed himself up (literally) as a friend, so that they’d be more likely to listen. That is manipulative behavior, and honestly it’s not that far of a stretch to imagine him being an emotional manipulator/abuser, and it’s also not that much of a leap to take a character from emotional abuser to physical abuser. 

So while that may not be canon, I (personally at least) find it to be perfectly within reason for fanon, and that is perfectly valid, just as fanoning Deceit to less bad than in canon is valid. The problem is we don’t have a lot of canon to go off of in the first place, so people get particularly attached to their fanon versions of Deceit. And it’s okay to be attached to your fanon, just remember that none of the views of Deceit outside of the actual (limited) canon are ““correct.”” Don’t confuse canon with fanon, but don’t be surprised if someone else’s interpretation of Deceit is different than yours, and please don’t let that be something that you get upset or defensive over. Just...I dunno, let everyone exist. Tag your Deceit content, tag your Sympathetic Deceit content, and just let people write/draw/think whatever fanon about Deceit they want to...even as we learn more canon info about him, that doesn’t make the fanon traits any less valid. 

Oh, and as a side note (pun not intended but wildly accepted) let’s stop pitting Sleep and Deceit against each other? It’s okay to like Sleep/Remy more than Deceit, even though he’s not a side, it’s okay to fanon Remy into the same universe as the sides, even though canonically he’s not in the same universe as them, just as it’s okay if you like Deceit more than Remy/Sleep. Let’s just not, you know, pit the characters (who aren’t even technically in the same universe) against each other and insist that one or the other is more deserving of love/hate or whatever. I dunno, I just see people do that sometimes and it bothers me. Like, they’re both good characters guys, let’s just enjoy them. 

Anyway, I’ve been rambling awhile and I don’t know if I’m making sense, but I felt like saying that. Resume your scrolling at your leisure <3

[dr-gloom]

Spookmonth Fics Masterpost

Read them all here on AO3

Simply Meant to Be - Day 1 

Summary:  Virgil really loves Halloween, and parties. Especially Halloween parties. Patton really loves Virgil.

Ship: Moxiety

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, costumes, Virgil is non-binary, Remy is genderfluid, hence the costume

This is Halloween (Everybody Make a Scene) - Day 2 

Summary:  Patton really wants to go trick-or-treating and manages to convince his boyfriends, but not everyone is as enthusiastic as him about the idea of adult trick-or-treaters.

Ship: LAMP/CALM

Tags/Warnings:  genderfluid Patton, Nightmare Before Christmas all over the place, I’m not sorry, some anxiety but let’s be honest I can’t write anything with Virgil without him freaking out at some point, mean suburban mom, can anyone feel my distaste for the suburbs yet?, Human AU

The Pumpkin King - Day 3 

Summary:  Halloween is coming up and Patton wants to carve pumpkins with his friends-turned-roomies. Virgil hasn’t even looked at a pumpkin in years, and the others are about to find out why.

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, pumpkin carving, lots of angst for like the first half, mentions of cancer, minor character death but it’s just mentioned

But Who Here Would Ever Understand - Day 4 

Summary:  Patton and Virgil have both had hard days at work, so they decide to take a little walk and talk about Serious Business™.

Ship: Moxiety

Tags/Warnings:  Virgil has Borderline Personality, Patton is a transmale, poor bois, hot chocolate, sweaters, sunsets, Human AU

There Are So Many Things I Cannot Grasp - Day 5 

Summary:  Logan hates the fall, because all he can see is the death of nature. Patton loves the fall, because he can push his boyfriend into a pile of rotting plant bodies leaves!

Ship: Logicality

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU (which I always forget to tag), idk what else to tag?, jumping in leaves, hhhhhh what a mess, I can feel the leaves scratching me no thanks

How Could I Be So Blind? - Day 6

Summary:  Virgil has never understood the point of decorating. Much less decorating for a season.

Ship: Moxiety

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, Non-binary Patton, Patton is an elementary school teacher, decorating for fall, there’s like one ‘oh shit’ moment but everything’s okay, cute dorky gays

This Looks Like Fun - Day 7

Summary: Patton’s been getting a lot of questions about the cookies people see his boyfriends eating in his videos, so he decides to make a video about them!

Ship: LAMP/CALM

Tags/Warnings: some swearing, Virgil eats like, everything, very ridiculous, Human AU, Virgil goes by Anx on Tumblr and his boyfriends try to respect that

I Must Be Dreaming - Day 8

Summary: Virgil has never been to a fall festival before, but he really wants to go with Logan. 

Ship: Analogical

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, a little bit of angst, will I ever be able to write straight-up fluff? Who knows, cute boyos

I’ve Never Felt This Good Before - Day 9 

Summary: Virgil and Roman have been together for a few years now, and Roman’s been planning something big. He loses his patience and decides to spring his plan into action on Halloween.

Ship: Prinxiety

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, dorks, cutie patooties, hella gay

Life’s No Fun Without A Good Scare - Day 10 

Summary: Roman talks Patton into trying out the corn maze. They totally don’t get lost.

Ship: Royality

Tags/Warnings: Human AU, useless gays, some swearing

Don’t We Love It Now - Day 11 

Summary: Patton drags Logan along to a hay ride. Logan does not like hay, but ey loves Patton, so ey doesn’t complain. 

Ship: Logicality

Tags/Warnings: Agender Logan, hay rides, little accident, it’s fine though no one’s hurt, Lo’s a sap for his sap

Instead of Throwing Heads - Day 12 

Summary: Logan takes Virgil apple-picking. 

Ship: Analogical

Tags/Warnings: slight injury, dw it’s okay, gay nerds pickin apples

Year After Year (It’s the Same Routine) - Day 13 

Summary: Patton loves many things, but Friday the 13th is not one of them. 

Ship: LAMP/CALM

Tags/Warnings: superstition, cute poly boyos, Patt’s not all that into religion because lots of ppl use it as an excuse to hurt others, but he doesn’t have a problem with ppl being religious, cute phone contact names

I Can’t Believe My Eyes - Day 14 

Summary: Virgil has a secret. Roman is more than thrilled to discover it. 

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings:  Logan is non-binary, Dee has vitiligo, bois obsessed with caffeine, idk man it was just funny

Make You Jump Out of Your Skin - Day 15 

Summary:Deceit really loves October. 

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings: sympathetic Deceit, Dee plays pranks, it’s funny, s/o to @lucifer-in-my-head​ for helping me with Patton’s idea.

Why, That Looks So Unique (Inspired) - Day 16 

Summary: No one makes couples costumes for polyam relationships. The boys decide to take matters into their own hands, with a little help from Steven Universe. 

Ship: LAMP/CALM

Tags/Warnings:  costumes, fusions, halloween, roman’s good at art (unlike me), cute boyos

And How You’ll Scream - Day 17 

Summary: Virgil talks Patton into watching a Halloween movie with him, despite how nervous they are.

Ship: Moxiety

Tags/Warnings: non-binary Patton, halloween movies, cute supportive boyfriends, patton gets scared but virgil comforts them

Feels Like Tragedies At Hand - Day 18 

Summary: Virgil doesn’t sleep. He isn’t capable of sleeping anymore, and he hates it. But one night, Thomas can’t sleep either. 

Ship: platonic ThVi

Tags/Warnings: shitty summary, ghost virgil, witch thomas, idk are these really monsters?, sorry yall, reference to death

Something’s Waiting Now To Pounce - Day 19 

Summary: Virgil and Patton go to a haunted house and someone gets too scared to finish what they started. 

Ship: Moxiety

Tags/Warnings: Human AU, this is based off of a real event, i went to a haunted house with my friend, i was virgil, some spook/angst/suspense(?), minor swearing

Won’t The Children Be Surprised - Day 20 

Summary: Patton convinces the others to explore a supposedly haunted carnival with him. It… doesn’t exactly end the way they’d thought it would

Ship: platonic LAMPDS

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, haunted carnivals, spoopy, remy’s a butt, is he real? no one knows

Only Dust And A Plaque - Day 21 

Summary: Logan hated not knowing what happened. He wished he would just be left alone. 

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings:  human AU, ghost logan, angst, idk sad logan, minor violence but no one is hurt

Here Lies Poor Old Virgil - Day 22 

Summary: Virgil had been the one to always talk Patton into visiting the graveyard, but this year Patton has to go alone. 

Ship: Moxiety

Tags/Warnings: human AU, major character death, really freaking sad, I’m not sorry, poor Patton, poor Virgil

You’d Better Pay Attention Now - Day 23

Summary:  Virgil’s up late and gets scared by something unexpected.

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings: virgil gets spooked, it’s dumb

When You Call “Who’s There?” - Day 24 

Summary: Roman gets out of rehearsal pretty late one night, and has to walk home alone. He lets himself get a little too paranoid. Or does he?

Ship: romantic or platonic Prinxiety

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, hella suspense yo, roman’s an actor, virgil is mentioned, very spooky walks home

It’s Been Dead For Much Too Long - Day 25 

Summary: Not all ghost stories are told by the living. 

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings:  Human AU, graphic depictions of blood/gore/violence, seriously if you’re at all squeamish you probably shouldn’t read, ghost!Roman, ghost!Deceit, death, suicide mention, animal mutilation, murder

Somewhere Deep Inside of These Bones - Day 26 ((sequel to Day 21))

Summary: Remy had heard all the stories growing up, so naturally he wants to see what the truth is when he still believes in the ghost that lives in that rundown house downtown. 

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings: Human AU, angst, poor Logan, things are all coming together, Remy and Declyn are dorks, ouija board usage, i do not condone such acts of foolishness

With Lives on the Line - Day 27

Summary: Roman brings his boyfriends to the imagination, and things go horribly wrong. 

Ship: LAMP/CALM

Tags/Warnings:  violence, but i mean like, fist fights, uhm, idk what else

Can’t Shake This Feeling That I Have - Day 28 

Summary: Patton wants to play Outlast with Virgil. How could he say no?

Ship: platonic Moxiety

Tags/Warnings: it’s a horror/suspense game so, creepy, suspenseful, anxiety attack, some swearing, Human AU (I keep forgetting to add that one to my fics whoops)

Something’s Up With Virgil - Day 29 

Summary: Remy throws amazing Halloween parties, with a crazy money prize for his costume contest. Virgil wants that money. 

Ship: Prinxiety

Tags/Warnings: Dragon Witch costume, Virgil’s unfairly hot, based on @em-be-lievable‘s Dragon Witch AU, Human AU, College AU

What Have I Done? - Day 30 

Summary: Roman ate the last of the Crofter’s. He could only imagine how furious Logan would be.

Ship: no ship

Tags/Warnings:   intimidation, servitude, Roman wtf, belittling, slight swearing, Human AU

Join You By Your Side - Day 31 

Summary: This was by far the scariest thing Virgil has ever done in his life. He’s planned for this day for months, put up with things he never would have before, just to see this day happen. All for Remy. 

Ship: Sleepxiety

Tags/Warnings:  flashbacks, cute nerds, self deprecation, halloween festivities, I’m trying to tag this without giving anything away, Human AU